The RonJon 2007 Summer Sailing Safari

Official Blog

June 18

We decided to head up Hwy 31 and Hwy 22 for a look at the northern shore of Lake Michigan [LM].  It was breathtaking.  Hwy 22 kept going up and up.  Eventually we saw a sign,  Scenic Overlook, and pulled over.  We climbed a hundred flight of stairs and were rewarded with an incredible view of Lake Michigan.  White beaches, blue seas, and beautiful dunes.

It may seem unusual, but with Lake Michigan on our left, we hit lake after lake on the right.  Some emptied into LM, others did not.  We passed Crystal Lake and remembering that the M17s raced there recently, we turned around and drove in.  The lake was gorgeous.  We noticed Bill Wiggins on the leaderboard and figured it was he we passed on the highway with a load of boats. 

A local sailor advised we check out a side road to LM.   We drove up on an afternoon of windsurfing.  The surfer/sailors were obvious pros and put on an impressive demonstration.  With the breeze really up, they appeared to be moving in excess of 30 mph.

Pressing on we came to the Sleeping Bear National Lake shore and took the scenic drive.  It consisted of a series of overlooks to LM and the gigantic dunes.   The overlooks were incredible, and here we were on top of sand dunes some 4-500 feet high. 

Next we drove up on Traverse City, a college town on Grand Traverse Bay.  The entrance to Grand Traverse Bay is the northern most point of LM.  Traverse City is at the southern end of the bay.  We ate lunch and admired all the hotel resorts on the waterfront.  I made a note we would return to TC if our final destination, Torch Lake [TL], was not too far away. 

We found the shoreline of Torch Lake.   We saw nothing of a yacht club until a local resident explained we had passed it.  We doubled back a mile or so.  Our initial impressions were not that good.  The club marker was a 4 x 8 [inches!] piece of painted wood.  The entry road was a DIRT road winding through woods.  I feared the boats might even catch a branch.

Lakeside was not much better.  Parking consisted of dirt lots.  Boats were stored on the very common shore racks we have seen since White Lake.  These are independent standing lifts made of metal.  Boats are raised by a manual wheel.  Visiting boats would launch straight off the beach.  Metal grates were laid down at several intervals to stop car tires from spinning.  We did not see where 70 boats would sail from.

The club restrooms consisted of an outside privy house with a single stall.

The clubhouse was impressive.  Half was a beautifully restored log cabin that was the original clubhouse.  Half was a newer addition.   A large deck surrounded the entire clubhouse.  There was an outdoor chess set on the lawn.

We parked our boats and headed back toward Traverse City.  This night we stayed at the Holiday Inn on Traverse Bay.

Interesting hi-lites:

"Was that Bill Wiggins?"
"Lock the chain through the hitch and hopefully it will still be here."
"Check out the mosquitoes in the latrine."
"You need to wait your turn."
"Kiss my grits"